Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-03-02
A GOOD BILL KILLED.

While the law should lose none of its
terrors for the evil-doer, and while society
should have the protection from the vicious
that certain and severe laws give, yet in
the face of the fact that crime increases in
California disproportionately to the popu-
lation, and that we have practically no re-
formatory element in our prison system, it
is surprising and humiliating that the chief
virtue in the State Prison bill should have
been stripped from it by the Senate. After
amending the Act so as to limit the parole
system to minors, that body finally, in pur
suanee of narrow and short-sighted poll
cy, struck it out altogether. This is the
reverse Of craftsmanship. 1t was perhaps
too much to hope that the Legislature
at one bound would reach the best plane
of action in penal reform. Communities
must be trained to the acceptance of new
policiesior treating crime and then LegiS-
latures viii respond to tie enlarged intelli-
gence. They have so many years proceed
ed upon the now exploded doctrine that
the best use to make of convict is to
oonine him as such, that any attempt to
step up ont Of that rut into better paths
must result in many defeats before any de-
cided progress toward reform can be made.
Yet it was not thought that the experience
Of Prison Directors the world over would
be 50 rudely set aside by legislative body
that has had no especial opportunities to
study practical penology. Ii was thought
that something might be conceded to the
Judgment of the Pathological Commission,
and the cloud of witnesses that maintain
the views ii holds After thirty years or
more of trial our method has proved to
be more provocative of crime, and more
prolific Of the criminal class than that of
any State in the Union. Why, then, should
we not have tried what Peno!ogists of the
age advise Certainly it could not have
made our condition worse-all the chances
were for its betterment.
California, under the craftsmanship
now manifest at the Capitol without
graded prisons herding tyros in crime
and hardened offenders judging of con
rict's reform only by his observance 0:
prison laws aiiording prison officials no
Opportunity to test the felon's sincerity by
actual contact with the world sending
convicts out at the expiration of their
terms to become the victims of old com
panions. to be Stunned by society and
driven back to crime without parole
system without, indeed, any of the meth
DDS adopted in older and wiser States for
Iessening crime, must continue the manu-
facture of criminals and her application of
merely punative punishments, until some
Legislature Of the future awakens to fall
realization of the great truth that preven-
ton is better than cure.
The adopting of the parole system would
have given us opportunity to demonstrate
that our present method OF reforming ~
is wholly at fault. As Prof Francis Way
land has said
As all finite tribunals arr failible. ard as eases
NAV arise in which justice may be wisely tenn
pefed with mercy without impcriling the peace
and safety of society, it may he well TO provide
for the release or parole OF such prisoner so
confined and primo ia &c iRco;rigibie, as may
have given evidence OF genuine and radical re-
form Bat such evidence should never consist
merely of substantial or even literal compliance
with prison regulations. Nothing can be more
fallaeiouS or more m .Sieatiing than belief that
what is technic ally called III prison paflance,
GOOD behavior" has any decisive, or CONTROL
in. or considerable value in determining the
QUESTION OF character. This is especially true in
the case OF all penal INSTITUTIONS where an al
lowanee of time Is conceded for good conduct.
Every warden in the country knows by long
and uniform observation that the most hardened
criminals are the very men vino rarely trans
gress prison rule.
The most skilled practical penologist
and successful Warden in the country, f.
q. Broclsway, says the best aid to dis
charged prisoners is that rendered by the
prison authorities while holding the
prisoner under legal control ION parole)
BIZ employment and supervision. Warden
Peetrey, Of Ohio, says the results of the
parole system in his State .are all the most
ssnguiue could anticipate, f. II. Wines,
a penologist OF distinction, says: " The
parole system has shown itself to be prac-
ticable at Elmira, n. Y. 1t implies the
existence of truly reformatory discipline
in prison"
Or. Charming, over forty years ago, de-
clared that society has hitherto employed
lis energy chiefly to punish crime, but it
is infinitely more important to prevent it,
And 50 through all the expressions of
thinkers upon the subject, and Of men ex-
perienced in prison management the SEN
timent runs that State but half does its
duty that turns the key upon the offender.
II has remained for California by her
Legislature to declare all experience and
study in the matter to be of such doubtful
value as not to warrant experiment. The
decision of the Senate really amounts to
this, "it is wisest to continue a system
that has everywhere else been condemned"
In the opinion of the Senate that ought
to settle the matier-and unfortunately it